Michael Rosen
About the author

Michael Rosen

If he wasn’t already a poet, storyteller, BBC broadcaster, and prolific children’s book author, Michael Rosen says he would like to be an actor. Anyone who has seen him in performance knows that he already is—whether bringing his humorous verse to life in front of a classroom or presenting an internationally broadcast radio show. The charismatic author was introduced to the pleasures of language at an early age by his parents, both of them distinguished educators in London. When he was a teenager, his mother produced a British radio program that featured poetry, and this inspired him to start writing his own. Now a highly popular children’s poet and author, Michael Rosen is known for “telling it like it is” in the ordinary language that children actually use. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, he explores the experience of sadness in a way that resonates with all readers, with unmitigated truth and a touch of humor. About this book, which came from the author’s real and very personal grief, Kirkus Reviews raves in a starred review, “Readers . . . will be touched by the honesty and perception here.” In the picture book This Is Our House, Michael Rosen captured the ways that children use the language of discrimination. “Our attitudes about who’s okay and who’s not okay get formed when we’re very young,” says the author, whose simple, lighthearted story makes a compelling case for tolerance.

Books by Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen Articles

Do Dads Read Aloud Differently? And Why It's Important That Fathers Do Storytime

Review | Book Life | News

1 February 2023

Do Dads Read Aloud Differently? And Why It's Important That Fathers Do Storytime

Activity: We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

News | Book Life

22 September 2021

Activity: We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Happy 30th Birthday, Dear Bear

Kids & Ya

1 March 2019

Happy 30th Birthday, Dear Bear